Donald S. Lopez, Jr.

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The Chinese rejection of the Dalai Lama’s choice of the next Panchen Lama, the second most important Tibetan lama, represents the greatest threat to the Tibetan institution of the incarnate lama in its history. It is a long history. With the decline of the Tibetan monarchy in the ninth century, political and religious authority shifted gradually to Buddhist teachers. Because many of these were Buddhist monks who had taken vows of celibacy, the problem of succession eventually arose. In some cases, authority was passed from a monk to his nephew. But by the fourteenth century (and perhaps even earlier) a form of succession had developed in Tibet that, although supported by Mahayana Buddhist doctrine, seems unique in the Buddhist world. This was the institution of the incarnate lama, or tulku (sprul sku).